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Record Number of Students with Disabilities Enrolled in 2022-23

The Report on the Condition of Education 2024, recently released by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, found that, in 2023, a record number of students with disabilities were enrolled in an educational institution.

As noted in the report, “the number of U.S. students ages 3–21 served under IDEA increased from 6.4 million in school year 2012–13 to 7.5 million in 2022–23. Taken as a percentage of total public school enrollment, this equates to an increase from 13 to 15 percent of students.” 

The report goes on to say that in Pennsylvania, New York, and Maine, the percentage was 21%, the highest among the 50 states. It was 12% in Idaho and Hawaii, the lowest percentage.

The rising number of special education students is cause for concern, as described in an article in The Wall Street Journal and summarized on the Safe Minds website. That article reported that schools are struggling or failing to meet the needs of this influx of students. The Safe Minds article noted that The Wall Street Journal explained that the recent surge was “driven by pandemic disruptions and reduced stigma” causing schools to struggle to meet student needs.

Significant staffing shortages and budget constraints, made worse by the end of federal COVID relief aid, also contributed to the struggle. In addition, The Wall Street Journal reported that special education teachers noticed increased mental health issues and extreme behaviors among students, which required more support like personal aides.

The Pew Research Center, in an article detailing federal education data about students with disabilities, noted that “during the 2020-21 school year, 40% of public schools that had a special education teaching vacancy reported that they either found it very difficult to fill the position or were not able to do so.” Additionally, the Pew report found that 44% of private schools found it very difficult, or, were unable to fulfill vacancies in special education. This information came from Characteristics of 2020–21 Public and Private K–12 Schools in the United States, a report released by the Institute of Education Sciences in December 2022. 


Ben VanHook is an AuDHD (autistic and ADHD) master’s student at George Mason University studying public policy and is currently employed at OAR as the community support coordinator.

The post Record Number of Students with Disabilities Enrolled in 2022-23 first appeared on Organization for Autism Research.